Web site, how to improve it & tempt people to delve deep

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
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kjib
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Location: Exmoor, South West England
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Web site, how to improve it & tempt people to delve deep

Post by kjib »

Hello to everyone on this forum (1st post). I'm still working my way through the site and it seems like a wonderful thing so far!

I am tinkering with the landing (i.e. first or home) page on my web site www.the-cleeve.co.uk in an effort to reduce the seemingly high rate where people go no further (i.e. they look at the fist page and leave).

It seems that between 30% and 50% of people leave the site on the first page (but I don't know how many of these have been else where, come back the the first page and then bailed out). Quite why the statistics vary so much I'm not sure.

So my first question is what can anyone suggest to reduce my landing page loss rate... how can I entice people to look further?

Any my second question is, everything else :!:
If you have any comments about what should look to improve please fire away.

Thank you.
Martha
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Location: Chamonix

Post by Martha »

hi and welcome!
I don't think those stats are too bad really, a lot of people will just be looking for something else, especially with such a huge house. What a lovely place! The fireplace is beautiful.

My main concern is that it's not clear who you're aiming at. Who's the market for groups that big? Do I need 28 people to fill it? Is it a family and friends holiday or a business place?

How many bedrooms and bathrooms? It's hard to grasp the scale of the place, so perhaps some quick bullet points might help? And perhaps a "from" price? I wonder if smaller groups (20 or so) might be put off by the size. And for bigger groups, the living room looks too small (though I see there are two when I look more carefully)

Looking through, I see it can be rented by much smaller groups - I think you could make this clearer on the home page with an at-a-glance guide.

Overall it looks lovely but the size is confusing to me.
Chalet la Foret, Chamonix
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Thomas BC
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Post by Thomas BC »

Hello
A beautiful looking house!

On first impressions I would think that your property is for very big groups (up to 28 ). So, someone with a smaller family of six, or even eight looking for a holiday rental probably would click away very quickly - particularly with the line: up to 28 guests can dine together.

To me the text on the landing page gives the impression of being suitable for very large groups only, and therefore quite expensive.

If it is suitable for bigger groups that is fine, but that would be quite a specific niche market and I know there is a rental site that caters for bigger places (can not remember the name though - someone will come up with it I am sure).

Good luck
Thomas
Last edited by Thomas BC on Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kjib
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Post by kjib »

Thanks for looking Martha and Thomas.

Following your comments I've just tweaked the landing page.

It no longer shows a reception room. The one shown was more interesting with it being octagonal but it does not look large enough in the photo that was there (in fact it has window "benches" around the seating you could see).

I've added some bullet points for smaller groups.

I replace the reception room picture with something else unusual to see if that might tempt the curious to stay a while!
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Thomas BC
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Post by Thomas BC »

kjib wrote:I've added some bullet points for smaller groups.
Smaller groups is still 16 - which I would have thought was quite big. So, I would have thought you are still aiming at a smaller niche market. So perhaps Martha is right, given your niche market, your bounce rate is not that bad.
kjib wrote: I replace the reception room picture with something else unusual to see if that might tempt the curious to stay a while!
I think the reception room image was better (the only thing I did not like about it was the bright colours of the TV screen - but I doubt that would be turning anyone off/away) - certainly for the home page.

Do you know about these sites - on which you could advertise for larger groups:
http://www.bigholidayhouse.com/
http://www.countrycottagesonline.com/La ... dation.htm[/quote]
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kjib
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Post by kjib »

Thanks Thomas,

OK, the bullet now mentions 8 to 16 people to help with the smaller group sizes.

I will see what else I can do about the reception room / woodwork photo!

We are on bigholidayhouse.com but I'd not seen the other one. Normaly I'd expect to have come across it and would bail if I'd not found it in my own searches but I notice that quite a few similar properties use them so I will givem them a try too. Thanks for the tip.
Everything you need is just a step away...
http://www.the-cleeve.co.uk
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Thomas BC
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Post by Thomas BC »

So if you do offer your property to groups of 8 - can more than one group of 8 rent it out at the same time? And then I am sure what punters would want to know is do they share the kitchen, do they share living rooms (dining room and lounge) - and what about bathroom facilities. These are the issues that are not clear in that first set of bullet points and people would make up their own mind - and delve deeper or not. One of the most frequent questions I get is about shared facilities, be their internal facilities or external ones.

For some this is not an issue - but for some it is. And those are the kinds of things you need to be addressing/making clear in that first set of bullet points.

And on the photographs ... while I agree with Martha it is a stunning fireplace, I am not sure it is the best image to be using for the front page - its just a fireplace. And I only see the top half of it on the first fold (ie everything above the mantle piece, not including the mantle piece). Perhaps a great picture of a nice bedroom or something would be more appropriate. Your gallery, btw, takes for ever for me to see - well I only saw the fireplace - all others too big I think - but I am on dialup not broadband.
Last edited by Thomas BC on Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kjib
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Post by kjib »

Hi Thomas,

The house is always exclusive to one group. I guess that's another bullet point needed then!

Thank you.
Everything you need is just a step away...
http://www.the-cleeve.co.uk
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